I've got a house Belgian/saison blend and a cake from a batch fermented with dregs from Almanac Brewers reserve. I'll probably save some wit yeast that will come out of the batch I brewed this weekend. I like to have some 05 on hand. I'm trying to get that house yeast blend worked into something I can keep going. I think I might try the larger starter and saving some method next time I pitch that.

I've got a house Belgian/saison blend and a cake from a batch fermented with dregs from Almanac Brewers reserve. I'll probably save some wit yeast that will come out of the batch I brewed this weekend. I like to have some 05 on hand. I'm trying to get that house yeast blend worked into something I can keep going. I think I might try the larger starter and saving some method next time I pitch that.

I got the larger starter idea form Duboman in this thread http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=16566.msg208515#msg208515. I've done this a couple of times with 1056 and it's much easier than washing yeast post fermentation. So far the results have been great with normal fermentations you would get from a starter. These batches haven't been kegged yet, so I have not final taste evaluation, but I expect it to be no different than using a fresh smack pack.

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Jeremy Baker

"An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience." - Mitch Hedberg

I tend to have US-05, Nottingham and S-04 on hand. If I decide to brew a style that requires a different yeast then I will purchase it and make a starter if necessary. I used to use liquid yeast exclusively with dry yeast as backup. I realize now that I like the convenience of dry yeast. Cheers, Brandon

Are we talking intentional house yeasts? Just kidding - I keep about 3 at any one time, one being a back up S-04 or US-05 in case of an emergency or a desired ale. Lagers roll from batch to batch until I am tired of reusing them (34/70 is nice to have around). Then the question is what about sours.....those are a sore subject with me right now, as I am replacing some plastic equipment due to that issue. But I have some Saison II stored for use when I get the chance to cook up a nice session Saison for early fall.

I have a couple strains of wlp 001... One that's used for IPAs and the other is used for most other less hoppy american style ales. I have a strain of wlp 320 and a strain of Wyeast 1272. I'm going to use wlp 004 for the first time Friday and I plan on harvesting it. When I started harvesting yeast, I would get four jars. I find that unnecessary now. I usually just harvest one jar and the occasional two jars in the case of a ten gallon batch. If you harvest four jars a brew, you'll have 28 jars of yeast laying around before you know it.

Myself as well. These are slurries saved from previous batches and tend to be 3787, Unibroue, Wyeast ESB, and probably another Belgian or two (Ardennes and Chimay, I think). There's some what should be dumped.

I also have a stash of dry yeast that doesn't get touched too often. But the house yeasts get a regular rotation. After maybe six batches or so I'll start fresh from a new smack pack.

I brew almost strictly german lagers and american ales, so I have either WL830 or 833 going in one fermentor and WL001/US-05 or WL007 going in the other.

If i want to brew a one-off batch like a wit or something like that, then i purchase specifically that yeast for that batch.

I only buy yeast a few times a year, yet i brew every 2-3 weeks.

Sounds very much like my regimen...not to hijack the thread, but how many generations do you go with your "house yeast"?

Same here. I typically go 4-5 generations before starting over.

Dave

I was visiting the tap room of a small brewery in town. Most of their beer have a Belgian influence and their house strain is some type of Trappist yeast. We were talking about yeast and he said he felt the yeast "performed" the best in generation 3 or 4.